'How to' Edit 2 - the cat...!?!

Yes, onto the second edit of 'How to', and it's the cat that's the driver of this one. Perhaps the book will need a map to show its 'journey' throughout the story. 5 days of walking around, searching for food, being chased by a dog, being petted to death, escaping the clutches of cannibals, etc.
Won't take too long, but then I'd like to read it all through, adding a little more detail here and there...
And then I'll submit it! Oh, happy days...the cloud of doubt hangs heavy....
Tried this website, it's meant to show you who you write like...http://iwl.me/
Paste a text in and it compares your writing style to famous authors.
So far, the list is long...
Stephen King....Stephanie Meyer...Jack London...Mark Twain...Margaret Mitchell...Edgar Allan Poe...Neil Gaiman...Lewis Carroll....8 different pieces of writing, 8 different styles...:-)
I'll keep trying, maybe one day I'll get Woolf or Adams... :-)

Happy Birthday, Michael!

Yesterday (or today, depending on where you live) was (is) Michael D. Pitman's birthday!
Happy Birthday, Michael!
Who is Michael? A reporter and fellow TIW participant. He partnered me in the TIW Grduge Match which got me into the Winter Equinox Final..which I finally won...to become a finalist for the TIW Autumn Open. We have also shared many chats and laughed at many TIW jokes together...yes, there's a small 'Closed' TIW world out there, growing daily, where we just have fun!
So, in celebration of Michael's birthday, Weekend Quickie 27 (found here) was in his honour...here's my take :-)

Michael's Omission

( 200 words : image - woman sitting on bed with a bear, element - a handsome newspaperman’s birthday, emotion - a feeling of anxiety brought on by the omission of a comma)

"Another job well done," smiled the handsome newspaperman as he stood up to get his coat. It was his birthday and all was well with the world. It had been a productive day, sharing out muffins in the morning to his colleagues, interviewing a famous local artist with the paper's smelly photographer Ted who'd almost got attacked by said artist's pet 6 foot grizzly bear when he'd bent over at an inopportune moment, handing the story in on time for the evening's print, sorting out the backlog of emails he'd amassed from neglect, and finally getting rid of that awful coffee stain from the edge of his computer's monitor. Now he could go home to his loving wife and fabulous children to celebrate with a slice of cake.

"Happy Birthday, Mike!" said Ted, handing him the paper's evening front broadsheet and laughing.

"Thanks, Ted." Mike's smile wavered as he noticed that the whole office was watching him, laughing. Turning the broadsheet over, he saw the wonderful photograph of the interviewed artist sitting on a bed with her bear, but his joy turned to anxiety once he read the headline. 'Local artist finds inspiration in stewing her bear and other pets'.

'How to' Edit 1 finished

I'm celebrating. It's taken a long time and a lot of effort to get 'How to' this far. Now I need to read it through, make sure everyone is in character, and everything happens accordingly.
I have surprised myself with this one. I think I should have a go at a new cover...but then again, maybe not. I'm submitting it to a publishing company in the USA who has shown a little interest in my work...they can surely reach a larger audience than I can by self-publishing. Fingers crossed that they accept it.
Anyway, there's still a little time to go before I'll let it 'out', there's the POV edit, the cat & dog edit, the 'weather' and smell edit, the 'final' edit and then the 'beta' readers. Fancy a go? Drop me a line!.

Palindromes! Flash in the Pan! 13th March 2014

Looks like there's a new thing in TIW...Flash in the Pan!
Today it was this...
(this is my take, there are others on the website here (you'll see my Dr Suess thing on the right :-)  http://theironwriter.com/flash-in-the-pan-31314)

Flash in the Pan 13 March 2014

(Palindrome - "I madam, I made radio! So I dared! Am I mad, am I?")

"Is he alright, doctor? Is he?"

It was difficult to see how the poor man could be, what with the four iron wrapped around his head.

"I'm going to have to run a few tests, madam. Just when exactly did this happen?"

"After the swearing, before the ban," said the distressed wife.

"No, no, at what time did this happen?" The doctor shined a light into the patient's eyes.

"Oh, sorry, doctor, about three hours ago," stated the women, matter-of-factly.

"Three hours! Why the hell did it take you this long to get him here?" complained the doctor.

"Well, I didn't really notice..."

"Notice? He's wearing a golf club for a hat and you didn't notice?"

"Well, I noticed that, but..." She was interrupted by her inflicted husband.

"I madam, I made radio! So I dared! Am I mad, am I?"

"See? He never made much sense before but now…" apologized the wife.

"Ah-ha. He has 'palindromitus', a common misfortune on the golf course." The doctor stopped his examination and sat there thinking.

"So, doctor? What's your diagnosis?"

"I'll write up a prescription." He wrote down the usual commission based medicine and scribbled his signature down at the bottom of the paper.

"So, doctor, looks like my husband won't be playing golf for a while. Fancy a set of clubs, without the four iron, of course?" asked the wife.
"Golf? God! Yawn! Mad on Eve! No damn way! Dog flog!"

Jack Kerouac's birthday - 'Cerrada Medellin Blues' Dani J style

There was a nice 'Daily FLASh in ther Pan' in the Iron Writers Facebook group today, to commemorate Jack Kerouac's birthday.
The 'challenge' was to model a poem after Cerrada Medellin Blues....not a big poet but I tried.
Here it is :-)

Even though I had a sister

I always played alone

             just myself and me

Hunting in the corn

I tripped and hit my head

            & got home late

Broke my toe while walking back

Crept inside and went to bed

And nothing more was said

Never ever looked

                        ahead

DANI IN THE SHADOWS

            WAITING PATIENTLY

Thanks to (7): Zeltesh & GreenleafT22

As I've said before, there have been SOOO many people retweeting my tweets that it would be impossible to individually thank you all....so...
A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE WHO'VE RETWEETED! :-)
Looking through the long, long list of wonderful people (I wanted to write everyone down here...how long is a piece of string?), 2 people kept appearing...


@Zeltesh "Imma insane, glomping, & stalker person thingy! YAY!! :D"
He has a youtube account here, too, I think. He's a cool gamer :-)
https://www.youtube.com/user/Gamekevin 
THANK YOU, Zeltesh!

@greenleafT22...seems to have disappeared from Twitter, but I found some photos on Twicsy.com...
http://twicsy.com/u/greenleafT22
I'm guessing GreenleafT22 is a writer/artist?...hang on...there's a picture of someone holding a book...
"Untold" by Sarah Rees Brennan...http://www.amazon.com/Untold-Lynburn-Legacy-Book-2-ebook/dp/B00C4BA3WS
It's a picture from Kassie Cline on Twitter...

Sarah Rees Brennan...Here's her website.. http://sarahreesbrennan.com/

Oh, this is like some little treasure hunt :-) ...Sarah Ress Brennan on Twitter.

I have absolutely no idea who greenleafT22 is, but THANK YOU!

Thanks to (6): Cinta Garcia Rosa

There are so many people who've retweeted my tweets, it would be impossible to individually thank them all, but there are a few who appear more than others, for example...Cinta Garcia de la Rosa!
Thank you, Cinta, for taking the time to retweet my stuff :-)

She no longer seems to have a twitter account, but she DOES have a website...:-) http://cintascorner.com/
...and describes herself as 'a silly writer'...oh, the best kind of writer!
Cinta has 10 books, all based on a character called 'Little Nani' http://astore.amazon.com/icatstre78-20?node=74&page=1

This one hits a funny bone :-) The illustrator is Almudena Romero but I'm not too sure where to find her...

Little Nani and the Flying Muffin (The Funny Adventures of Little Nani)

Little Nani is so bored that she needs to do something about it. Why not baking muffins? In that way she can have a party with her friends. However, anytime that Little Nani tries something, her imperfect magical skills will play some naughty part and things won't have the expected results. However, she will manage to turn the situation to her advantage. 
Get it here! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CZIQ9E6

Again, a BIG THANK YOU to Cinta!